Inside George Clooney’s ‘Good Night time, and Good Luck’ Broadway Opening

Sit seven rows from the stage at “Good Night time, and Good Luck” on Broadway, and also you’re certain to catch a whiff of prop cigarette smoke.

Cigarettes — and the fading pulse of the Fourth Property — took prime billing throughout Thursday evening’s premiere on the Winter Backyard Theatre in New York. For each movie star with a vape in hand, journalists within the crowd absorbed George Clooney’s name to arms beneath a sobering haze of scrutiny.

Amongst these within the room had been Jake Tapper, George Stephanopoulos, Lesley Stahl, Chris Wallace, Rachel Maddow and CBS chief George Cheeks, seated alongside A-listers Drew Barrymore, Uma Thurman and Lorne Michaels. The crimson carpet, staged throughout from the theater’s towering marquee, had its personal spectacle. Hundreds of followers lined the road as Jennifer Lopez, Clooney’s “Out of Sight” co-star, turned heads in a black robe paired with a billowing white cape.

Jennifer Lopez on the crimson carpet for opening evening of “Good Night time, and Good Luck,” on April 3 in New York.
John Nacion

“Good Night time, and Good Luck” is a near-verbatim adaptation of the 2005 movie of the identical title, which chronicles Edward R. Murrow’s televised takedown of Senator Joseph McCarthy on the peak of the Crimson Scare. But, a handful of pointed additions draw a transparent line to the woes dealing with trendy journalism.

“The play is extra emotional than the movie,” Grant Heslov, Clooney’s longtime producing accomplice and co-writer, instructed Selection. “And the ending takes a really totally different course.”

In a key alternate, CBS president William Paley delivers the acquainted line: “We don’t make the information, we report the information.” However Paul Gross’ Paley goes a step additional than his movie counterpart (performed by Frank Langella), questioning the precedent Murrow’s actions have set for the journalists who will in the future sit in his chair.

That rigidity foreshadows the present’s “Babylon”-esque finale: a rapid-fire montage of broadcast information’ defining moments that sparkled throughout the field TVs flanking each side of the stage. It started with touchstones just like the Moon Touchdown and Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech, however because it edged nearer to the current, the footage grew louder, extra chaotic, extra sensationalized.

“It’s not simply journalism. It’s an issue we’re confronting in a capitalistic society, which I consider in, however sooner or later it’s important to determine what the general goal is,” stated Clark Gregg, who performs Pinko-branded journalist Don Hollenbeck. “Is it all the time revenue? Is the reality all the time worthwhile? And shouldn’t the reality be primary?”

Clooney’s play arrives at a crucial juncture for conventional journalism. Because the Trump administration vows to slash federal funding for PBS and NPR, legacy applications like “CBS Night Information” battle for viewership in a fractured media ecosystem.

“We neglect that when Murrow was broadcasting, there have been like 40 million folks watching,” castmate Andrew Polk famous. “There have been solely a few channels, and he was the man. That’s exceptional immediately. So perhaps that’s a part of the reply. All the things is so dispersed, folks actually don’t know the place to get the reality.”

In keeping with Gallup, 68% of People stated that they had a “nice deal” or “truthful quantity” of belief within the media in 1972. In 2024, that quantity hit a report low of 31%. One may level to the systemic difficulty Murrow faces within the play: the erosion of the firewall between company and editorial.

“I’m fortunate as a result of CNN is owned by David Zaslav and Warner Bros. Discovery, and so they’ve been fairly nice by way of backing our skill to report the details and the reality, even when it upsets whoever,” Tapper stated. “However there are different locations proper now that appear to be acquiescing and buckling. It’s very regarding.”

One of many evening’s most resonant moments got here as Clooney’s Murrow, in one of many actor’s lengthy, commanding monologues, debunked accusations of communist sympathies tied to a guide dedication from British Socialist Harold Laski. “He didn’t insist upon settlement together with his political ideas as a precondition for dialog or friendship,” he says in character. The gang responded with a low, approving murmur. The road clearly hit a nerve.

“One of the best factor you are able to do is learn each side,” visitor Richard Variety stated. “I hate Fox Information, however I hearken to it continuously. Exit and discover the reality.”

After the curtain fell on his Broadway debut, Clooney made a quick move down the carpet, his pepper-black hair nonetheless neatly in place. When requested about his spouse Amal Clooney’s absence, he flashed a crooked smile and stated, “She’s with the youngsters.”

Contained in the elegant afterparty held on the New York Public Library, Clooney celebrated his massive evening with well-wishers and buddies, together with “ER” castmates Julianna Margulies, Anthony Edwards and Noah Wyle.

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